Obtain Shadows, Maps, And Other Ancient Magic (The Dowser #4) Engineered By Meghan Ciana Doidge Document

is my favorite installment so far! I love how Jade comes into her powers quickly but still messes up a lot, I also love that the stakes are high and I love all the snark, Okay I'm a bit pissed, I didn't read the Oracle book, because I thought it was another series in same universe and they could be read any any order, See I prefer to read one point of view through entire story/series before switching to another characters head, Unfortunately the author LIED. This book kept bringing up things that happened in other series like a marketing plan, Not to mention the main love interest in Desmond is now gone, Seriously pissed! And not ready to move on, Plus I'm pissed about having to buy another series in order to follow timeline in this series, I should deduct two not just one,

It was a great read other than that, Missed Kett alot. Missed Desmond. Don't care for new dragon, But interested in where story goes, Guess I'm no longer in love with this series now that characters are being written off and other series shoved into it, Halfway through might as well finish the series, Our favorite cupcake baking, chocolate obsessing dowser is at it again in Meghan Ciana Doidge's latest release in the Dowser Series entitled Shadows, Maps and Other Ancient Magic, In this latest installment Jade is sent on a quest by the Dragon Council it's not actually called the Dragon Council, but in my head that's what I call it to decipher a map, find the location of the "treasure" and get it.
Simple, right Well, if you've read the other three books in the Dowser Series, things are never as simple as they seem, Mystic portals that drop you in the middle of nowhere, riddles and traps that can lead to sudden death and shadows that lurk around doing all they can to keep you from completing your task.
You know, that old hat,

Shadows, Maps and Other Ancient Magic shows us more of the connection between Jade and her shapeshifting werewolf protector and BFF, Kandy, We, briefly, meet up again with our vampire friend, Kett and Jade's woulda, coulda, shoulda been lover Desmond, aka McGrowly, the leader of Kandy's pack and a pleathora of other family and friends we have come to know and love thus far in this series.
Also, we have a new character to intrigue us, Warner, a Dragon Guardian, who just so happens to be quite pleasing to look at, New love interest for our girl Jade, I kinda hope so because I got quite a kick out of their connection with each other,

As always, I do not like going into major detail with these books as I really don't want to give things away Suffice it to say, I simply cannot get enough of Jade and her friends.
I adore how Ms Doidge brings her love of chocolate and baking into play with the series, How cool is it that each person's magic smells like various flavors, So as you can tell, I absolutely love this series and it just continues to get better and better as things progress, There doesn't seem to be an obvious major story arc for the series as a whole, however, each of the books have their own arc, which sometimes is concluded at the end of the book or might end up continuing and being resolved in the next.
This is absolutely a series that continues to grow and get better and better as it progresses, so if you haven't read the first three books in the series, go back and grab them.
But if you're cool, like me, you'll already have your copy of Shadows, Maps and Other Ancient Magic preordered,Stars I will preface this review by saying that I really enjoy this series and I will absolutely continue with it, . . However, I struggled a bit with this read, . . I found myself wondering about the purpose of the storyline, . . The author did not seem to have a clear focus in this book which made the storyline feel somewhat disjointed, . . In addition, I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with the way in which the author is "dumbing down" the MC, Jade, . . She is written as this powerful and unique Adept, but the author has her internal monologue stripping down every male she meets or overly infatuated with chocolate, . . It seems the author is attempting levity with this direction, but sometimes it just falls flat, . . I find myself completely immersed in the storyline when it is focused on the supernatural element, but then I get distracted by these random thoughts for the MC which takes away from the momentum of the story.
. . I am hoping this aspect improves as the series progresses and a clear direction can begin to reveal itself, : Oh Jade. . what can I say. This latest installment was fantastic, I loved the addition of Warren to the group and the Indiana Jones references kept me laughing, So much excitement, adventure, a little nail biting, and chocolatey goodness, I think with Jade's addiction for chocolate and continuous sarcasm she and I would be best friends in real life, Meghan made another amazing book, Next one please Its been a long while since I jumped into a Dowser book, I thought perhaps after taking such a long break from the series that perhaps Jade wouldnt annoy me as badly as she did when I was breezing through the novels consistently.
Turns out I was wrong! She is such a juvenile and petty person, I honestly dont understand how anyone can like this MC! ARGH!

So the story line beginsmonths after the last book ended, Jade has been artifact hunting for the Guardian Pulou, picking up many seemingly insignificant things, Then one day the Treasure Keeper lays out an undeciphered map made of dragon skin, He wants Jade to figure out what all the symbols and colors mean, and then retrieve whatever item the map leads to, Sound simple, right Well, considering Jades previous adventures, in hindsight, it kinda is,

Anyway, shortly after being given the map, Jade and Kandy are out having fun one night when they encounter some shadow scout demons and a random dragon that just pops in from out of nowhere.
The scouts are quickly defeated, but the unknown man is passed out cold on the pavement, Utilizing their strength, both Jade and Kandy drag the unconscious drake into the bakery and settle him down on a clean place in the kitchen,

After coming to we readers learn that that the fellas name is Warner, Hes a sentinel and was apparently awoken from an enchanted slumber, for he is tasked with protecting the item the map leads to, Apparently Jades messing around with the map made him wake up, The poor man has slept for such a terribly long time too, roughlyyears, Yet hes still as determined as ever to do his job,

So now Jade and Kandy have a new reluctant dragon ally that will help them find the item, or the instrument of assassination as Warner calls it.
As the son of the previous Treasure Keeper, Warner feels duty bound to make sure the item in question is found and safely returned to the new Treasure Keeper.
Thus the adventure begins as the trio learn to read the map, and then promptly get into a spot of trouble,

That is basically the whole story, All of it! The plot itself isn't that awful, it's just Jade and Kandy that make it so, But you wanna know why Jade is at fault She kept reminding Warner that his mother, the previous guardian, is dead, Over and over she says that to him, WHO DOES THAT What kind of soulless bitch throws that in someone's face, Its absolutely awful!

Also a sane person would think that Jade and Kandy would help Warner adjust to the new time he seems to find himself in.
But do they Nope. Instead they are just flat out mean and rude to him, They are nothing but bullies! Its like they delight in picking on him because hes a man, Like it makes them feel big and strong, Bleh, what absolute trolls. I wish Warner would have stuck up for himself, Jade and Kandy deserve a butt whooping if you ask me!

All the secondary characters that I adore barely make an appearance in the story, Kett and Yazi only pop in briefly, which is just sad, I love those two so much! And speaking of love, there is a new and rather lame budding romance, Jade and Warner cant stand each other but they are just SO drawn to the other! Predictable much

And then after being such a pissy little brat to Warner, during a stressful moment Jade says something along the lines of how during times of uncertainty she likes to be impulsive and kiss someone.
Then she has the audacity to ask him if hed be interested, REALLY For some reason though, because the author wants it to happen, they kiss, But it makes no sense! Why would Warner want to kiss someone as nasty as Jade I just dont get it! The romance spurring is very heavy handed and not very logical at all.


In the end, after a rather mediocre trial, the three stooges get the item they were tasked to retrieve, But thats not the only one! Turns out there are three artifacts to gather which means Jade will have to suck it up and sally forth!

In all honesty Im not even sure how this MC is still alive.
Shes just TSTL! If it wasnt for her super special plot armor Im fairly certain shed be dead already, And if not by some demon slashing her to bits then her death would be from a severe case of DIABETES, Seriously, all Jade eats is chocolate and cupcakes, No wonder shes such a chunk, And yet she gets the handsome and in shape guy Hm, . . Seems terribly unlikely.

As you can see I am not a huge fan of this series, not by a long shot, This story was very hard to get through without Kett, He really makes the books for me! Considering the direction this plot is going in I highly doubt he will be in the future novels too much which is an absolute bummer.
So at this point in time I have no intention of reading the next installment anytime soon, But perhaps Ill get to it sometime in the future when Im feeling particularly masochistic, Great Series. Startedst Cupcakes, Trinkets and Other Deadly Magic on Decemberth, then went binged all the others and today I start Unleashing Echoes,

st reason I've enjoyed this series is I really like the main characters, Jade, Rochelle and Westeria and their friends, I've found for me, if I don't like the people I'm reading about I don't enjoy the story, Her characters are complex with flaws but they care and they are trying to do what's right, which is not always easy,

Plus each Main character saw the world through their experiences which definitely, for me, gave them life,

nd reason Story, The story in each book kept my interest from beginning to end and the humor found was refreshing and, while I don't care about sex in a story, you didn't make the sex more important than the story so it did a good job of enhancing both the story and characters.
I feel like this book took me forever to finish! But it isn't because I didn't like it, It is actually a pretty good book,

Spoilers

So this Warner dragon shows up on Jade's doorstep, friend or foe skip forward and he is assigned to help with the task of finding one of the assassins instruments along with following a skin map.
That's right the map was tattooed on the back of a dragon then when he died the map was removed, . . eeeewwww.
Jade still has Kandy to help her out, Thank God, or she would never survive, But McGrowley only show his pretty self in the lastof the book!!! and Kett makes a cameo but that is about it, and no Drake he is still on lock down after last time So some of the main people are missing, this means Jade must make out with the new Warner.

I just hope in the next book some of these guys will resurface, And please let Kandy leave the pack again! the books can't survive without her

I am not sure why I keep reading this series, It started promising but deteriorating rapidly, This book is mostly having a heroine lusting after the new acquaintance, And why her best friend, every time she is mentioned, has to be “a greenhaired werewolf”! Every time! About hundred times in one book, She was a prominent character in previous books, a reader would remember that she has green hair and how it became her most distinctive feature or in any way is part of the plot
All the action in previous books that kept me reading disappeared and only silly unsatisfied lusting remains.
I am done with series now, I usually start to lose interest within therd/th book of longer series, It starts to drag or the characters change completely just for drama and I'm not a fan,

But Meghan Doidge's Dowser serious has kept me at the edge of my seat, even at the end of book,

I'm hopelessly obsessed with this series, And it's characters. I cant get enough of this! I would love to watch a TV series based on The Dowser books,
Its ironic because I didnt particularly like the first book but I kept thinking about it and its magical world and after the second book, well I became addicted.
This was a short read! For some

reason I kept starting it and never finishing, but this whole book felt actionpacked from the beginning, I missed Kett. Im glad we got to see more of the friendship dynamic between Jade and Kandy, Jade seemed a bit complainy in this book and constantly talking about how her designer clothes were ruined and her lack of relationship, Ill be continuing on with the series for sure, So so .

I like this book and mission for the discovery of the artifacts of assassination but this book dragged a little, Also their were parts where I felt the author tried too hard, Like in the middle of the mission when Jade say oh I have this really bad habit of kissing at really bad times and then they kiss, Either way I still liked this book and will continue with the series, .